Digital Crossroads, third edition: Telecommunications Law and Policy in the Internet Age

An incisive and thoroughly updated guide to U.S. telecommunications regulation—and what it can teach us about competition policy for Big Tech.

In Digital Crossroads, two experts on telecommunications and tech policy offer a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the regulation of competition in the U.S. telecommunications industry. The first two editions of Digital Crossroads (also MIT Press) became essential guides for policymakers, lawyers, scholars, and students in a fast-moving and complex policy field.

In this third edition, the authors have updated the book to include a wide range of industry developments that have reshaped telecommunications policy since the second edition’s publication in 2013. These include the rise and fall of common carrier regulation for broadband ISPs, further consolidation within the wireless industry, redoubled efforts to free up more spectrum for commercial uses, the increasing competitive significance of low-Earth-orbiting satellite broadband, and seismic shifts in broadband subsidy initiatives.

The book also includes a new final chapter that explores what the history of telecommunications regulation can teach us about competition policy for today’s largest digital platforms. As the authors explain, many proposals for regulating tech markets bear a strong resemblance to the regulatory measures that U.S. policymakers have taken, with varying degrees of success, to promote greater competition within the telecommunications industry over the past 50 years. The authors conclude that the lessons learned from those regulatory experiments should inform today’s competition policy for Big Tech.

Jonathan E. Nuechterlein is Distinguished Scholar at George Washington University’s Competition Law Center, Lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law, and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law School. He formerly served as General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (2013–2016), Deputy General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission (2000–2001), and Assistant to the Solicitor General (1996–2000).

Howard A. Shelanski is Professor of Law at Georgetown University, where he holds the Joseph and Madeline Sheehy Chair in Antitrust Law and Trade Regulation, and a partner at Davis, Polk & Wardwell, LLP. He was formerly Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (2013–2017), Director (2012–2013) and Deputy Director (2009–2011) of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission, Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission (1999–2000), and Senior Economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1998–1999).